Bring People Back To Church

I've known this truth a long time, however this week it seems to be all I've done: the church is not losing people because it does not have rock bands, visibly tattooed preachers, Disney-esque youth pavilions. It is not failing to attract people because it has strayed from orthodoxy or because every sermon is not focused on our dependence on substitutionary atonement. 

I can tell you from

 my group room that the church is failing to attract the very people it is called into being to serve because it is not meeting them at the point of their greatest need. Honestly, the road to Emmaus is a true story, one that is not contained in the Gospel of Luke, but one that is lived out every day, a thousand/million times. I think that when we in the church can open ourselves to the real grace of our risen Lord, alive and well, touching our deepest needs, deepest pains and fears, sufferings and despair then we can live a church which will do the same for God’s hurting, suffering, longing people.

Image to the right is "Dinner at Emmaus," Mondrian.